Play It Safe Candace
by magikarp27
Summary: Luke asks Candace on a date, and an onslaught of raw and difficult emotions ensue. LukexCandace, T for safety purposes.


**Play -It-Safe Candace**

**Series:** Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Harvest Moon and its characters belong to Natsume, Marvelous, and a few others. But not me.

"You...you what?" She asked, half stuttering, half muttering, fully in disbelief.

"I want to take you out! Sheesh girl, you act as if I asked you to commit murder for me," he laughed, like he always did. She envied that part of him. As she fiddled with her hands, looking down at her feet, he took her bony shoulders into his calloused hands and smiled that contagious smile of his. "No need to think about it, just say yes."

Her face felt as if it were on fire, and her head felt so suddenly light. Her palms sweated as she tried to imagine why Luke, ladies man extraordinaire, would ask _her _out. She was such a wall flower, looking after baby sister Luna and her mouth, who spent the better part of her days sewing clothes and assembling accessories, and whose idea of a good time was snuggling up in her bed with her silkworm Silky. Why, she was so unoriginal and unnoticeable that she couldn't even come up with a more clever name for her silkworm. But she knew Luke from way back when they were kids, and while they never were close, she still knew when he was being dead serious, a rarity to most when observing Luke and his behavior, considering even his serious face had a big silly grin on it. Her face continued to burn as she scrambled for an answer. When she couldn't formulate one in time, Luke supplemented one for her.

"Okay then! Maybe another time. Take care of yourself, you're looking a little flushed Candace." He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and strode off, the evening autumn breeze filtering through the long hair that stuck out from underneath his fiery bandana. She wasn't sure how she wanted to answer his request, not yet, but she felt that rejection was not the predicted outcome. She did want to run around with boys and have fun, just like Luna and all the other girls of Castanet, but there was a reason everyone called her "Play-It-Safe Candace". She didn't want to play it safe, but she didn't want to be hurt from boldness, as the pain from losing her parents was hurt enough to last Candace a lifetime. All she could do in the moment was grasp the broom stick she had been using to sweep the store's front to her chest and lean against the outer wall to Sonata Tailoring as Luke disappeared into the autumn night.

"Ahh, great dinner Candace!" Luna beamed, crumbs peppering her cheeks and rubbing her stomach.

"Luna, are you going out with Gill tonight dear?" Gramma asked, wiping her mouth.

"No, Gill's a total snore fest. I'm meeting Julius at the Brass Bar tonight." Turning to Candace, "You should come! You've been acting all depressed since this afternoon, you need to get out sis!"

"Yes Candace, you're young. These are some of the best years of your life dear, you need to get out and enjoy them. Why I remember when I was young..."

"I-I can't," _Luke goes there often _"I'm coming down with something. Maybe a cold."

"EEK! And you made dinner!" squealed Luna playfully.

"I-I-I'm sorry..."

"Oh I'm just pulling your leg sis. Anyway, I know that whole deal about a cold is a total load of-"

"Luna!" cried Gramma Shelley, shooting her boisterous young granddaughter a warning glare.

"So come on Candace, put on some cute clothes and let's do the town!"

Candace busied herself with clearing the dinner dishes and slicing into the freshly baked pumpkin pie and dispensing slices onto three plates, cheeks blazing a bright scarlet. "Desert is ready everyone. It's pumpkin pie."

"You're avoiding me," complained Luna, but Candace was no fool. She knew her kid sister's weaknesses well, and pies of any kind were the key. As soon as the dish landed in front of her dribbling mouth, she couldn't scoop the sugary delight into her mouth fast enough. Candace sighed with relief as she ate her own slice, staring at the salt and pepper shakers placed in the center of the dining room table, thinking. Luke...what a complicated guy. What a complicated situation.

"Maybe you are coming down with something Candace," Shelley pressed her wrinkled palm against her oldest granddaughter's forehead. "Your burning up dearie."

While she was distracted, Luna snatched up her grandmother's pie and gobbled it down before it was missed. Then she sprang to her feet, wished her loved ones a good night, and made a mad dash for the front door. Shelley ordered Candace to go to bed early while she cleaned the dishes. Candace was grateful, as she soaked in the tub, thick blankets of steam clouding her eyes, thoughts of boys clouding her thoughts. She never gave Luke much consideration in the past; she was convinced he asked her out as a way of saying thanks for sewing his ripped bandana the other day. That made perfect sense-the wild and loose-cannon Luke with meek little Candace, what a joke!

Still, she had seen the way Luke was with women, always kind and attentive and the perfect gentleman. Well, at least towards the way he treated girls as Candace thought back to a moment when she spotted Luke with the local female farmer at the Brass Bar, both enjoying a quiet meal, when suddenly he leaned back in his chair and unleashed a powerful belch which caused the whole bar to rock. Candace stifled a laugh as she quickly passed a hemmed table cloth to Kathy and quickly retreated from the facility.

_I wonder what Gramma and Luna would think of me dating Luke?_ A shudder ran up the center of her spine at the thought of Luke moving into the trio's quaint and feminine little bungalow, with his muddy boots and sweaty work clothes. Candace enjoyed cleaning and cooking, and from the looks of Luke and the fact that he still lived at home, he likely needed help in both of these areas. But Luna, she knew for sure, would simply _not _put up with the caveman bravado Luke seemed to pride himself in. Gramma, however was pretty laid back about such trivial matters; so long as he loved and took care of Candace and their budding family, she would be glad to open her home to him and his slobbish ways.

_Wait, why am I imagining us moving in together? We haven't even gone on one date! _She shook the thought and the water from her head as she made her way out of the tub, quickly drying and slipping her blue bathrobe over her shoulders. _I need a good night's rest_.

But even that wouldn't come quietly as she tossed and turned for over an hour, having a clichéd girl-struggling-with-new-found-feelings-for-a-boy moment. Her heart pounded in her ears, and her imagination wouldn't stop running circles in her head: her and Luke at their wedding, he wearing a light blue tux adorned with his signature fire-patterned bandana, she dressed demurely all in white with a beautiful veil trailing behind her feet; her and Luke sharing lunch she made for the two of them in front of the church on a spring afternoon, she gingerly holding up a sandwich while he took a bite; Candace very pregnant as she watched her carpenter husband construct a crib for their soon-to-be; their child now at the age of five chasing Luke around with a plastic gun until Luke finally falls on the ground, pretending to been shot, all this happening as she watched from the kitchen window while washing dishes.

_Please Luke, give me a little peace_. Then the more lustful ideas popped into her head, which she quickly banished away: at the end of the day, Candace _was a lady_. She pitied herself for creating such a magical world for herself and a man whom she never had the courage to go out with, even just to see where things would go. Maybe they would hit it off and go on many more dates from that moment on, maybe they would realize they would stay just friends, either way Candace believed she had absolutely no right to such fantasies when she couldn't be honest with that man about how she felt. It's true those very feelings were newly discovered and had only reached "crushed" level at best, but Goddess knows how badly they burned inside her chest, how agonizing the ache was when she realized those perfect family moments shared between a man and a woman who loved each other where nothing more than the products of an inexperienced girl's imagination. Play-It-Safe Candace's imagination.

She swallowed hard as something welled up inside of her, but swallowing it away wasn't going to satisfy this feeling which she could not accurately name. She pushed away her quilts and swung her bare feet to the cool wood floor and hurried over to the closet where she tossed together her usual conservative outfit before slipping away into the night via her bedroom window. The cold air gave Candace another jolt of encouragement as she quickly made her way from the back of the store to the Brass Bar. _It's almost one o'clock_, she couldn't help but feel that the whole evening took on a Cinderella theme as she arrived just around the corner from the bar. Peering shyly from the edge of a nearby village (a craft she learned to perfect), she spotted Luke, staggering from the bar in a drunken stupor, his arm around some unknown woman. Another woman. A not-Candace woman. The two seemed to be enjoying each other's company as they made their way up to the Ocarina Inn, Candace's big blue eyes following them all the way. When they entered, and the door had been close, she exhaled, gripping tightly to the concrete wall she hid behind. She tried to comprehend what had just happened, from the time of Luke's casual invitation to the moment the light shining out from the Ocarina's lobby faded into oblivion, and came up with the conclusion that Luke simply found another bone to nibble since she ever-so-subtly shot him down. She gave a shrug that said "Well, I gave it my best shot coach," to her shadow, and turned and headed for home.

While crossing the bridge in front of the shop, she decided to take an impromptu hiatus from walking and stare up at the moon for a few minutes. It was so big up in the black sky, but clouds shrouded the stars in nothingness, leaving the moon lonely as it floated in outer space. Candace could sympathize. But before she continued home a thought suddenly occurred to her, stopping her in her tracks: she designed and made the bandana Luke wears all the time. Not for him necessarily; Luna had been bugging her to make more "trendy" accessories and clothes, and thought the fire bandana would be just the ticket. She stitched it with the same care she gave to her plainly designed clothes, and hung it up in the shop's window the next day. She was on wool-dyeing duty that afternoon, and when she came out to the shop's front the bandana was gone. She never paid much attention to it, or to the fact that it was the only item she ever made that flew off the shelf the same day it was put up; it wasn't one of her best pieces. But Luke still wore it every day.

Every day.

A sigh, a sad smile, a pink hue, Play-It-Safe Candace made her way home, through the same open window in the back. And that was the end of that.

**A/N: **I had totally forgotten about this half-done-at-the-time oneshot, and when I accidentally stumbled across it my love for this innocuous couple, and decided to finish! (Selena and Julius will be fine together XD ) I write this note because I wanted to say "sorry" if there are inconsistencies in the story. When I decided to complete this story, I didn't re-read what I had already written, and so therein lies my concern. But I think it came out quite nicely, if I may be so bold! And don't worry about the sad, pathetic ending: this story is _far _from over. The perfect song to listen to while reading this? "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" by Def Leppard. Word.


End file.
